How to keep a trading journal

A trading journal is a record of decisions, not just results. The profit or loss of a single trade tells you little, because luck is loud in the short term. What a journal can show is whether you followed your own plan, which setups you handle well, and what you do after a loss. Here is what to write and how to review it. Trading carries a real risk of loss, and no journal changes that.

A practical logging and review routine, then the apps that automate parts of it, with a section for trading journals rising by visits on the Censuus ranking. Not financial advice.

Trading journals rising by visits and sponsorship on Censuus

A younger app from an independent developer:

Ranked by visit traffic and sponsorship on Censuus, not editorial opinion. The list changes as new apps appear and gain traffic.

Write the plan before you enter

The most useful entry is made before the trade: why you are entering, where you will take profit, where you will cut the loss, and how much you are risking. Writing it first makes the plan real and gives you something to compare against later. A journal filled in only afterwards tends to explain every trade as a good idea.

Judge the decision, not the outcome

A trade that broke your rules and made money is still a bad trade, and one that followed them and lost can be a good one. Mark each entry with whether you followed your plan. Over weeks, that column says more than the profit figure: it shows whether losses come from the strategy or from abandoning it.

Note how you felt

One honest sentence, bored, revenge after a loss, overconfident after a win, is enough. Patterns in mood often explain patterns in mistakes, such as larger positions right after a losing trade.

Review weekly, change one thing

Once a week, read the entries: which setups worked, which rules you broke, and when. Pick a single change for the next week rather than five. Apps can import trades and chart the statistics so the review takes minutes; compare them in trading journal apps.

Compared from each developer’s own store description.
When	What to log	Why
Before the trade	setup, reason to enter, planned exit and stop, position size	shows whether you had a plan
During	any change to the plan, and why	shows impulse decisions
After	result, whether you followed the plan, one sentence on how you felt	separates luck from discipline
Each week	review: best and worst setups, rules broken	turns entries into changes

Frequently asked questions

What should I write in a trading journal?

Before each trade: the setup, reason, planned exit, stop and size. After: the result, whether you followed the plan, and a sentence on how you felt. Then review weekly.

Does a trading journal make you profitable?

No. It shows your own habits and mistakes so you can change them. Trading always carries a risk of loss.

Should I use an app or a spreadsheet for a trading journal?

Either works. Apps save time by importing trades and charting statistics; a spreadsheet gives you full control over the columns.